Speech #800016160

Director of International Activities Service. Foreign Office of the Civil Aeronautics Administration. making a survey of 19 major airports throughout the Nation with a view of simplifying entry requirements for passengers and freight. The general purpose may be well founded since there is. no doubt. useless red tape that has from time to time been put into effect by regulations. administrative orders. and other forms of directives. but: The air lines. and apparently from press reports. also this committee. are taking this occasion to recommend what appears to be destruction of the purpose of our. immigration laws. Some of the proposals of the air lines. approved at least in press interviews by this committee. must not be allowed to be enacted into law. They propose that the word "immigrant" be substituted for the word "alien" in section- 3 of the Immigration Act of February 5. 1917. To do this would deprive our Immigration Service of the power to refuse admission to this country of such classes as idiots. imbeciles. insane persons. chronic alcoholics. prostitutes. criminals. persons who advocate the overthrow by force or violence of the. Goyernment of the United States. and several other such classes of excluded aliens if they were asking to come here temporarily as nonimmigrants. -Incidentally. nonimmigrants make up the major. portion of our alien travel. This would appear also to deprive the Immigration Service of the - right to deport such classes since they are now deported from this country. if found to be here. on the ground that they were a member of an excluded class at the time of entry. This Congress and especially the subcommittee of the Judiciary Committee of the House should give careful attention. to this matter. Another proposal is to put the permit issuing authorityconsulsand the examining authorityimmigration inspectorsin the same department. In other words. transfer the immigration inspectors to the -State Department.. This would reduce our Immigration Service to a !rubber stamp" agency since obviously the. State. Department would never permit an official below the rank of consulvisaissuing authorityto seriously question the acts of his superior. If this is to be done. we may as well do away with that part of the Immigration Service whose duties are the examination of aliens arriving in the United States. for its usefulness in excluding the undesirables will have vanished in thin air. I again most respectfully call upon. Tom Clark. the Attorney General. not to permit those in his Department who are inclined to let down the bar at every opportunity to put over the program of the airplane companies unless it can be justified from every angle. He should not give too much heed to the clamor of any specialinterest group. In summary. the air lines propose that the responsibility for predetermining an aliens right to apply for admission to the United States rests solely with the embassies and consulates. Under present laws and regulations nonimmigrant or passport visas are valid in most instances for a period of 1 year. Do they want us to welcome a bank robber with open arms to our country if he got a visa in January and did not rob the bank until February. or the person who became afflicted with a loathsome and contagious disease after getting his visa from a consul? Many of the cases where the Immigration Service refuses admission of aliens to the United States are from instances originating or their origin ascertained after consular officials had already granted them a visa. To destroy the right of immigration officers to exclude nonimmigrants in possession of a visa would let many undesirable aliens into the United States who are not now eligible for.. admission regardless of whether or not they have a visa. In this connection the subject of seamen. has been carefully avoided since. the proposals are presented by air lines. but the proposed revision would also appear to effect seamen. Does anyone believe for one minute that a United States consul examines all of the crew members of such vessels as the Queen Mary. the Queen Elizabeth. and. in fact. all of the ships coming to our -ports? Certainly not. For a fee he places a visa stamp on the crew list. The only examination given these people by the Government of the United States is by immigration - officers. These proposals would appear. to tie the hands of the.immigration.offcer completely from two standpoints. First. the seaman would have a visa since the crew list of foreign -ships are required to be visaed. Second. by changing the word "alien" to "immigrant." the exclusion of this class would be impossible under section 3 of the Immigration Act of 1917 because seamen are one of the classes of nonimmigrants. and if the act applied only to immigrants they could not be examined with reference to all of these basic reasons for exclusion .from admission to the United States. The air lines point out in the prologue of their agenda that the laws and regulations not only of the- United States but throughout the- world should be streamlined and -made more uniform both as to the text and application. in order to avoid continued vexatious and expensive delays -in -the :transportation of passengers and cargo by air. Yet. their recommendations do not appear to have the purpose of eliminating the unessential work which really would speed up travel. but rather to relieve the transportation companies of all penalties and obligations under the immigration laws. They. propose. atthe top of page 8 in their agenda. that transportation companies be accorded the opportunity to correct manifest errors upon arrival in the United States. and at the same time the $10 fine for manifest errors be eliminated. Passenger manifests in compliance with the laws of Congress are necessarily rather long since quitea bit of information is essential. To present these manifests to the transportation lines for correction of errors after passengers have arrived in the United States instead of immigration inspectors correcting them at the time of examination of the passengers certainly would not expedite or in any way facilitate the entry of their passengers. The air lines further propose that sufficient numbers of immigration inspectors be assigned to designated ports of entry to furnish all year 24houraday coverage for inspection and clearance of international passengers. and that the transportation companies not be responsible for the payment of overtime for aircraft arriving at designated ports of entry regardless of arrival time. whether on. or behind schedule. and that unscheduled aircraft which arrive at designated ports of entry at a time when immigration inspectors are on duty not be subject to overtime payment. At the present time we are making every possible effort to reduce the Government expenditures and reduce the number of . Federal employees to the bare essentials to carry on the necessary functions of Government. To place immigration inspectors 24 hours a day every day in the year at all international airports would enormously increase the number of immigration inspectors required. In Miami. Fla.. alone there are four approved international airports. The greater volume of travel comes through the Thirtysixth Airport. I was informed in that office that the approved seaplane base at Dinner Key frequently did not have an international arrival for a week or more at a time. and that arrivals at night hours are very irregular at two of the other approved airports. If we followed the recommendation of these air lines we would have to place immigration inspectors at these places on a 24hour basis. 365 days a year. to twiddle their thumbs the great majority of their time. in order to save the transportation company from having to pay an inspector who has performed his tour of duty onehalf days pay for each 2 hours of work when called out during hours after 5 p. m. and before 8 a. in.. or 2 days pay on Sundays or holidays. Our laws at the present time provide for absolutely free immigration inspections of. scheduled planes which arrive within an hour of their scheduled time. regardless of the day or night. Sunday or holiday. with no charge whatsoever for inspection by the Immigration Service. For these that are not scheduled. they may easily avoid overtime payments by arriving between the hours of 8 a. m. and 5 p. m. on weekdays. I see no reason that the Government should employ a greater number of immigration inspectors in those instances where the law provides that such charges may be made. There are. as I said before. some proposals that appear to be sound. but they may be put into effect without legislation. For instance. the air lines ask why it takes 8 weeks to get a decision on an appeal of an excluded alien. The laws now provide that when at the time of arrival an alien is believed to be inadmissible to the United States he shall be held for a hearing bzfore a board of special inquiry composed of three members. If he is excluded by this board and does not appeal. he should be immediately deported. If he does appeal. the record in his case is transcribed and forwarded to the Board of Immigration Appeals for final decision. I am told that the record in these cases is reviewed first by the officer in charge of the port. then it is forwarded to the office of the district director of immigration where it is again reviewed. it is then forwarded to the office of the Commissioner of Immigration in Philadelphia. where it is again reviewed. it is then forwarded to the Board of Immigration Appeals in Washington. where it Is again reviewed and a final decision made. No wonder the alien waits 8 weeks and the transportation companies complain about detention charges. Congress did not pass any law requiring all that review. and they do not need to change any laws to eliminate it. Our laws regulating immigration are all rightall we need is sensible enforcement of them. I can say the same for the border patrolmen. This department has improved its efficiency greatly. and is manned by men of courage and ability. Their work during the war in ferreting out undesirable and alien enemies was of a very high order. It is rumored that it is the purpose of those in high authority to turn over the work of the border patrol to the FBI. While I havc great regard for the FBI. I hope that this ruinored plan will not be effectuated.